


Mangoose

by sugarandspace



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Animal Transformation, Battle Couple Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Crack Treated Seriously, M/M, Mongoose!Magnus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:53:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24203938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarandspace/pseuds/sugarandspace
Summary: All warlocks have an animal form. What happens when the Circle uses new technology during a battle that forces the warlocks fighting alongside their Shadowhunter friends turn into their animal forms?
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 18
Kudos: 119





	Mangoose

**Author's Note:**

> I've been suffering from a writer's block the past three weeks and today I sat down and wrote this whole thing. Inspired by the conversation about typos we had at the Malec discord server and the fact that whenever I write Mangus google docs suggests "mangusti" which is a mongoose in Finnish. Before we knew it, mongoose!Magnus was a thing.

Alec shoots another arrow and it pierces the head of the Circle member who was getting a bit too close to Jace. It’s a tough fight but they are holding their own against the twenty or so Circle members. They had found out that some of them still tried to keep the movement alive, even after Valentine was gone for good. They had assembled their own team of Shadowhunters and had ambushed them during one of their meetings, their goal to capture them so they could be sent to the Gard. Only it looked like they weren’t willing to go without a fight. 

Alec is standing on top of one of the smaller buildings in the area, looking down at the fight and assisting with his bow and arrows. Among seraph blades and Izzy’s whip, he can see flashes of red and purple where Magnus and Dot are fighting alongside them. They happened to be at the Institute when they planned the mission and they wanted to help, eager to bring the last parts of the movement down.

The shrill sound takes them all by surprise. Alec turns his attention to the direction of the sound and notices that one of the Circle members is holding some kind of a machine that’s the source of the noise. Alec turns his attention back to the battle before getting too distracted, his vantage point at the roof giving him a perfect view of the whole fight. 

At first, everything seems normal.

Then his eyes find Magnus.

Magnus is covering his ears, seemingly more affected by the noise than the others. Alec looks at Dot to find her in a similar state. The machine must be doing something to the Warlocks.

Alec shoots another arrow and the Shadowhunter holding the machine is dead, and the machine falls to the ground. Unfortunately it doesn’t break, and the noise continues to ring in the air.

He looks at Magnus and notices that his magic is flickering, and in a blink of an eye, he’s changing form. Instead of seeing Magnus like people are used to seeing him, now in the middle of the fight stands a foot and a half tall mongoose, also known as Magnus’ animal form.

As Alec looks to the other side of the fight he can see Dot in her own animal form, as a dark owl. It’s clear that the machine did something to mess up with the Warlocks and turned them to their animal forms without their consent. 

Alec had always known that each Warlock had an ability to turn to an animal, but only a specific type of animal that was determined by their magic and heritage. He had not known what Magnus’ animal form was until the man in question had told him himself.

Magnus didn’t spend much time in his animal form, since being a human was usually more practical than being a mongoose. Magnus had told him that mongoose form had very little perks compared to the human one. At first, he’d been hesitant to tell Alec about it and had played along when Alec had assumed that his golden eyes were that of a cat’s.

Had Alec been surprised when he found out that it was a mongoose? Yes. Had he thought any less of his incredible boyfriend because of it? Absolutely not. He actually thought that Magnus looked rather cute in his animal form, but he had a feeling Magnus wouldn’t appreciate the comment, so he’d kept it to himself.

Magnus didn’t like spending time in his animal form among strangers, and he’d definitely benefit from his human body in a fight, so when he had not turned back to his human form yet, Alec assumed that he couldn’t. 

Alec shoots more arrows and he sees that Dot is making use of her form, using her long and sharp talons to attack the Circle members’ faces, careful to not let them hurt her in the process.

Magnus, on the other hand, looks to be in trouble. Being a foot and a half tall in the middle of a fight might not make you an easy target to the weapons since it makes you nearly invisible to everyone who’s focusing on bigger threats, ones on the same level. But as much as that invisibility is a blessing, it also keeps almost resulting in Magnus’ death as he keeps dodging all the feet that are constantly threatening to stomp on him.

Alec jumps down from the roof and pulls his blade out, making his way towards where he sees Magnus, standing on his back legs and looking every which way for a safe escape route. Just like that Alec’s previous goal of killing or capturing the Circle members has switched to getting Magnus out of there alive.

He makes it to Magnus and scoops his boyfriend up, not even thinking about it before he’s placing Magnus in is quiver with the few arrows he still has left. When he no longer needs to worry about Magnus, he’s able to focus fully on the fight.

The loud noise is still ringing, but it’s merely background noise to the sound of metal hitting metal and screams of exertion and pain. It doesn’t take long before Alec can feel tiny feet on his shoulder, Magnus’ head next to his. Alec lets out a breath that’s almost like a laugh. He should have guessed that Magnus wouldn’t want to stay hidden, even when he can’t really do anything to help.

The fight goes on and on, and every now and then Alec can see flashes of orange hair or a glint of an electrum whip or the wide wings of an owl. He’s fighting back to back with his parabatai as the amount of Circle members gets smaller and smaller.

He finds out that he doesn’t need to worry about dropping Magnus who’s alternating between having his front feet on his right shoulder and having them on his left shoulder. Magnus keeps the lower half of his body securely in the quiver, while the rest balances perfectly with the fast movements Alec is forced to make.

Alec winces a little when he feels sharp claws in his scalp, as Magnus climbs so that his head is on top of Alec’s, his back legs on the back of his jacket collar, the claws brushing the back of his neck. He gets that Magnus is most likely trying to find a position where he’ll be the least distracting but where he’ll be able to keep an eye on the fight but this particular position is proving to be a bit uncomfortable for Alec.

“Magnus,” he complains but he doesn't have time to move him away as the fight keeps going.

It ends up being a good thing when Alec feels a pull in his hair a moment later, the pain forcing him to turn his head a little to the left, which allows him to see the enemy that had been approaching without him noticing.

He kills the woman with a well-aimed swing of his blade.

“Thank you,” he says to the mongoose that’s still holding on to his hair, albeit not as painfully anymore.

The fight starts slowing down after that, their numbers bigger than those of the remaining Circle members’. Alec manages to go on the rest of the fight without any more hairpulling, and after a while, Magnus retreats back to his place over Alec’s shoulder.

Alec pulls his blade out of the last Circle member he killed before looking at the fight around them. Everywhere he looks he can see his friends and colleagues aiding each other to kill the remaining enemies. 

His attention is turned to Magnus when he feels the weight of him leave his shoulder as he hops to the ground and starts running. Alec’s eyes follow him, curious to see where he’s going. He leaps over bodies and discarded weapons on the ground until he reaches the machine. Alec watches as Magnus bares his teeth and bites into the wires of the machine, and it doesn’t take long until the noise cuts off.

With the noise and all the sounds of the fight gone, the place is eerily quiet.

As soon as the noise is gone, Alec watches as Magnus turns back to his human form, dressed up in the fancy clothing he wore before he got forcibly turned. He looks around to see Dot landing on the ground before turning back to human.

“We did it,” Jace says and Alec turns to look at him. He’s sweaty and has specks of blood on his face, and Alec assumes he looks about the same. He’s about to reply before he hears a familiar voice from behind him.

“Jace,” Magnus says, his tone polite and matching the smile he wears. “Can I borrow your brother for a moment?”

“Sure,” Jace says. “Just don’t disappear anywhere, we still need to clean up this mess. If you don’t come back in ten minutes I’m going to come and get you and I do not want to witness anything that will scar me for life.”

“Oh Jace,” Magnus replies. His smile turns from polite to teasing and Alec is slightly afraid of what he’ll say next. “If I wanted, we could be done in five.”

Alec closes his eyes and groans at his shameless boyfriend. Nevertheless, he takes the offered hand and follows Magnus a bit further away from the bodies, to the area where they can’t be seen or heard.

His slight hopes for Magnus living up to his words are instantly killed when Magnus looks at him with a serious expression and speaks.

“Alexander Gideon Lightwood,” he starts and Alec is instantly on edge. And not in a fun way. He looks with wide eyes as Magnus points at him with a finger and pokes it to his chest.

“I am the High Warlock of Brooklyn! You do not pick me up while we are working!”

Alec knows he’s playing with fire, but he can’t resist the opportunity.

“But when we’re not working?”

The glare he receives as the response is so strong Alec is surprised it doesn’t physically burn him.

He lifts his arms up in surrender.

“Fine,” he says. “I promise not to do it again.”

“Thank you,” Magnus replies, and Alec can see that he’s fighting a smile. He knows that Magnus didn’t like what happened, but he also knows that he’s not nearly as bothered as he pretends to be. If he were, the glint Alec can see in his eyes wouldn’t be there. Alec likes to think that he’s learned to read his boyfriend pretty well, and would know if he truly were upset or angry. 

Alec thinks the biggest reason for this conversation is that Magnus wants Alec to know that he doesn’t have to be helped, that he would have been able to handle the situation on his own as well. Mongoose might not be the most dangerous animal to have as your animal form, but centuries of living with it have taught Magnus how to use it to his advantage. Alec knows that he would be useless if he turned into something that didn’t have thumbs.

When they walk back to the others, Magnus’ sure steps take him towards the machine still on the ground. Magnus glares at it and with a dramatic wave of his hand and a bright flash of red magic, it’s nothing but a pile of smoking ash.

When Magnus turns his head to look at the others who have turned their questioning eyes towards the sudden flash of red they saw, Alec does his best to hide his smile. 

He truly loves his boyfriend, both in his human form and as a mongoose.

**Author's Note:**

> Do you like Shadowhunters? Do you want to find people who also like Shadowhunters? Join us at [Malec discord server](https://discord.gg/2K8TF6), I promise this is not an accurate portrayal of all the conversations we have there. And everyone is really nice!!


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